Man in St. Paul hoping for date with 'Staci' is mugged by four men, charges say

The 34-year-old man was hoping to rendezvous with "Staci," a woman he contacted through 1-800-Singles.

Instead, he was greeted by a group of men wearing face masks who hit him in the head with a gun, kicked him and stole his cellphone early Tuesday in St. Paul's West Seventh neighborhood.

Criminal complaints filed in Ramsey County District Court charged four men and one woman with first-degree robbery.

The complaints said the police, who found the victim bleeding heavily from the head, tracked the phone number for "Staci" to Colleen Renee Cloud, 26, who lived a few doors from the scene of the robbery in the 1500 block of West Seventh Street.

According to the complaints:

When police went to Cloud's apartment, they found Cloud and four men inside, with two of the men hiding in the closet under a pile of clothing.

Police also found a handgun in the apartment. Cloud told police that her boyfriend, Anthony Derell Thomas, 28, of Hugo, and three other men came to her apartment and asked her to "do a dating call," the complaint said. The men "scripted what she was supposed to say during the conversations with men," the complaint said.

"They told her to tell callers that they had to 'pay to play,' " the complaint said. "The plan was for the men to come down and 'scare him and take his money.' "

Charged in the robbery are Cloud; Thomas; Devonte Lee Carter, 22, of St.

The complaint said Thomas eventually told police there was a plan to rob a man who was coming with cash to have sex with Cloud, but Thomas denied having the gun or taking the victim's phone, the complaint said.

Tommie Green said the other three men beat up a drunk who used a racial slur, but he denied participating in the robbery, the complaint said. Marcus Green admitted to being involved in the robbery and striking the victim twice, the complaint said. But he denied having the gun during the robbery and said the robbery was Cloud's idea, according to the complaint.

Carter denied knowing about the robbery plan or participating in it, the complaint said.